Thursday, 1 June 2017

Guest Blog: Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire preview by Rob Enderby

Tomorrow
sees Derbyshire take on our mighty neighbours from up the A52
Nottinghamshire. A match up that I believe is more than a little
unfair. My beloved Southend United don’t often play Arsenal or
Chelsea. When they do it creates all manner of interest and scramble
for tickets. Then come the big day it usually ends in glorious
failure. Normally by half time..

With their
facilities, financial largesse and reputation for poaching the best
talent that other counties have produced (Broad and Gurney who are
likely to play tomorrow being two examples) Nottinghamshire really
should not be languishing in Division 2 and that they are should
serve as an embarrassment to all concerned.

In reality
Derbyshire are in a league within a league along with Leicestershire,
Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire. Our season will be
remembered by how we finish in this mini league.

I am
writing this prior to team announcements and was about to bemoan our
bowling line up when I read that the club have signed Conor McKerr on
loan from Surrey and I for one wish him well. More on his situation
later.

My team
assuming no further injuries:

Ben Slater

Billy
Godleman

Shiv
Thakor

Wayne
Madsen

Gary
Wilson

Daryn Smit
WK

Tom Wood

Jeevan
Mendis

Tom Taylor

Tony
Palladino

Conor
McKerr

There is
enough rain around to help our cause and I’m hopeful of securing a
draw in the available time – we shall see.

I offer
some thoughts and observations from afar as to our current problems
and their solutions.

The captain has too much to do and this may lead to muddled thinking.
Captain, opening bat, selector and coach roles all take their toll. In the
first innings of the match v Worcestershire Ben Slater was out in the
first over. The ball still being new and shiny called for an opener
to replace him but Billy still came out at 5. Clearer thinking
needed.

Much has
been said on the wicket keeping front. All I would add is decide on
the best keeper and play him.

With our
resources and lack of pulling power we are simply not going to be
able to entice established county professionals to us, they will
always have better options. I think it was John Morris who said that
we can never get a first teamer from Surrey, but we can get their
14th/15th
man, and we just have in young McKerr. Exposure to first class
cricket may be just what he needs. His and others routes in to the
first team are always going to be difficult. Just as they appear to
make their breakthrough then Surrey poach Footitt and on and on. No
one can argue that signing Gary Wilson has been anything other than a
roaring success.

Although
laudable, the idea of playing home grown talent has just not worked
out. For a number of years we have had a number of players who have
not made themselves an automatic pick. Perhaps they will always be
5-10% short of the required standard and I don’t believe we can
afford to carry passengers. Peakfan will argue about jam tomorrow
but we haven’t exactly had bread today for a number of years. If
these players are not progressing better to let them go and rely on
young McKerr and his ilk.

We have 2
or 3 players that are attempting to do everything well and perhaps
are not doing anything well enough. We should encourage these
players to find their best suit and stick to it. Players such as
Flintoff and Stokes are rare indeed and in the future are unlikely to
emanate from Derbyshire, for the reasons mentioned above. As soon
as they show any signs of talent, Surrey, Nottinghamshire et al
will come a-knocking.

I am happy
to stick for this. But on the same subject whilst I understand that
spin bowling and leg spin bowling in particular take time to master,
young Critchley is as far away from our 4 day squad as ever. He is
not taking enough wickets in the 2nds for anything like inclusion.
However he does bat well. Why not turn him into a batter who
occasionally turns his arm over. Cricketing history is littered with
such examples.

I headed
this piece Support Support Support and that is what we should do.
After all, the clue is in the name. There is a car park in
Chelmsford that my now grown up children still call “the Derbyshire
lost car park”. This is where, time after time, their Mum would come to
pick me up, sat glumly on the step after another defeat at the hands
of Essex.

Yet I still stick with it. Enjoy the highs (oh for 2012
and KK again) accept the lows. Be realistic, objective, drink from a
hall full cup and the world seems a much brighter place.

My
elderly Mother wants to watch Chelsea as she can celebrate a win
before the game has already started. I couldn’t agree less. I
love the unpredictability of sport. Every now and then David wins
and wouldn’t it be great for that to happen in the next 4 days?

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Notts may at one time have been accurately accused as 'poachers' (between 2005 and 2013 for example) but no longer. Notts didn't sign anyone last winter, nor the winter before. Indeed, the last player Notts signed from another county was Greg Smith (hardly a Leicestershire regular) at the end of the 2014 season.

In fact, the Notts team tomorrow is likely to contain only 3 or 4 players signed from other counties, about the same of Derbyshire, and fewer that most counties!

I agree that the relegation last year was an embarrassment to all concerned, but part of the reason for the relegation was the small size of the squad, in my humble opinion:

Don't disagree with any of this other than Hosein for Wood and played as a KeeperWith only 1 team getting promoted and no relegation we should play our youngsters ( and we cannot get any worse)Also frees up Smit to bowl In 4 day cricket we have to back our youth but we can adapt for the 20 and 50 over format in terms of WK Batsmen and all rounders (Critchley Reece Hughes etc)I am concerned about the output of the Academy in recent years (post Houghton) but also if we don't pick them then we could end up trading off other clubs second string/ over 30's aka why go to Derbyshire ?

About Me

I've been a fan of Derbyshire since 1967 and experienced the ups and downs with everyone else.
I work for a major retailer and love my job, although wishing it was closer to Derby!
I'm married to the gorgeous Sylvia, have been for 32 years and we have two great
kids. There's Steve "Man Mountain", who is 26, 6'5" and a computer software engineer for a multi-national company. Then there's the lovely perky Rachel, who
at 20 has the sunniest of all dispositions at any time of day. Not forgetting Wallace, the fox terrier, a quite wonderful dog!
Please get in touch if you ever need a speaker for a cricket dinner or cricket society meeting.
Contact me at peakfan36@yahoo dot co dot uk